field trip day

We went to the Grand Rapids Children's Museum today for 1st grade field trip. I am off on Thursdays and was able to go today. Normally the field trips and class parties are on Fridays when I work, so I signed up to be a driver this past fall when school had started. I love the Children's Museum as much as Rhianna does. Wow did we sure have fun!

They have several new items there and they had portions closed for construction.

days gone by

2 year old Rhianna and Daddy running through the sprinkler

My heart melts watching these two play together!

The Love Dare...

There it sat. On top of the other DVD's. Staring, taunting. The copy of Fireproof that Jennifer and I had borrowed from her parents~months ago~unwatched. I had no interest in viewing it because "I felt I had a good marriage".
Date night came for Jen & me (these are few and far between for us, so to watch a movie is not what I envisioned for this evening). Rhianna was at Nana & Papa's with a cousin or two so we (Jen) thought it would be a good opportunity for us to finally watch this movie.
I reluctantly pulled this DVD out of it's case, popped it in the player, sat down on the couch next to Jen and waited for Kirk Cameron to tell me what a crappy husband I am.
Thinking this movie doesn't apply to me, I half-heartedly watched this selfish, egotistical, porn addicted Firefighter captain (Cameron) whose wife was about to leave him evolve into something beautiful at the hands of a book his father gave him-"The Love Dare".
As time went on I began seeing similarities between this captain and me. The yelling, the selfishness, the "because I am the husband and you are the wife" attitude. I was getting into this movie (as corny as it was) because I started relating to this guy. My marriage wasn't as good as I thought it was. It was a lot like this one.
With the help of this book, he was becoming a different man. His friends could see it. His wife could see it. I could see it.
When the movie finished, I asked Jen if I could purchase this "Love Dare" book. She said her parents had a copy if I was really interested. I was, so in the next day or two we borrowed this book.
A few chapters into it, I realized that I was not the husband God wanted me to be. I was selfish, controlling, and not uplifting. Every day there was a new "dare" that I needed to accomplish, i.e., only saying things that uplift your spouse, doing little things around the house that you normally wouldn't do, spending more time in prayer. I started them with the thoughts of "if Kirk can do these, I can do these". Not yelling? Not pointing out what she's doing wrong? This was hard. Could I really do this? So I prayed..."Father, help me accomplish these dares so I may be the husband you planned Jennifer to have". With God's help and this book, our marriage is now better. It's not perfect, but it's better.

role models

The morning news was full of weather related accidents so Gracie and I allowed plenty of time this morning to head to school. As we drove out from the driveway, we did find plenty of snow. Gracie was sure that God had snowed on us all night long to have as much as we did this morning. My sweet girl. Anyway, there was a lot of traffic and slow going for most drivers. The intersections were particularly congested. We waited for what seemed a very long time at 36th and Burlingame. There was a vehicle waiting to turn right (only way for him due to the median) and not a sole would let him in. He had to have been waiting a long time because he had accumulated at least 4 inches of snow on his car while waiting! Hehehe. Gracie explained to me that I must let him in because everyone was ignoring him. As I came to his street I let him in however, he needed to turn left at the light and no one in the left lane would let him in to make the turn. I apologized to Gracie for what poor role models a lot of adults can be. My frustration over driving is growing so fast. Many drivers no longer share the road and they drive as though the road is theirs alone. I am also frustrated that too many drivers feel as though the traffic laws were written for everyone but themselves. Where has common respect for each other and property gone? We received an email from Gracie’s school with the same requests. Parents are showing a lack of respect and patience in the parking lots when picking up their kids from school. The email ended with a plea to remember that we are the adults setting the example for our children. How sad our schools need to remind us PARENTS that we are ROLE MODELS.

I am trying to post to my blog from my phone. Let's see if I set it up right!?!?

Our Family

Well here is to another first. I want to start a family blog. I'm not sure what I'll give up in order to spend time here but here it goes.